StarCraft II

The 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Summer Championship is the final event of the 2012 MLG Summer season. The tournament has two preliminary stages - a Group Stage for the highest seeded players and a double-elimination Open Bracket. However, the Group Stage has a new name and format: double-elimination Group Play replaces the round-robin Pool Play from previous Championships. Top 16 players of 2012 MLG Summer Arena are seeded into Group Play, due to scheduling conflicts, the eight invited KeSPA players will be replaced in Group Play by the next highest qualifiers from the Summer Season, based on Arena and Invite Qualifier results.

The Open Bracket and Group Play are conjoined in a culminating double-elimination Championship Bracket. In addition to the regular tournament, MLG will also be hosting the WCS North America Finals, players like Huk, Idra, Nony and more will be competing in both.

The first player in the group is non other than Young Seo 'TaeJa' Yoon, the Korean Terran currently playing for Team Liquid. Due to his recent winnings in the past months, the question will now be “Will Taeja triumph again?”. Recently participated in the 2012 MLG Summer Arena, where he faced Alicia in the finals and won by the score of 4-2 and grabbed the championship. One of the other recent achievements is doing an “All Kill” of team Incredible Miracle and took down MC by a score of 4-1 and winning ROG Summer 2012. Taeja is definitely a player who can win this tournament based on his success over the past year.

The second player in the group is Taejas teammate Song Hyun 'HerO' Deok, Korean Protoss player. He is known for using the warp prism and mothership to their maximum potential. At IPL Fight Club at Hot Import Nights he managed to win over DongRaeGu in the finals with the score of 4-2, also before that winning the 2012 MLG Summer Qualifiers Korea over Alive with the score of 4-2. The question is will HerO’s nerves get the best of him? Only time will tell.

Third player in the group is Kim Dong 'Ryung' Won, who is playing Terran for team SlayerS. Current notable results for 2012 is getting Ro16 in Code S and Ro24 in Code A in Season 3, Q‑Ro4 in OnGameNet Starleague and 9 - 12th in the MLG Pro Circuit Summer Arena. Ryung is player that I feel will do very well in this tournament.

The fourth player in the group is Dong Hyung 'RevivaL' Kim, a former Brood War Zerg player currently on the Team SCV Life. Revival had minimal success at the start of Code A, in GSTL Season 1, he defeated TheStC, NaDa and MC in the match versus oGs. Revival achieved first place 42 times in a Playhem Daily, which is the current record of most 1st place finishes, he also has a lot of success in the online cups like Antec Attack and ZOTAC. I think Revival’s chances for progressing further in the tournament are quite slim.

The fifth player in the group is Chris 'Illusion' Lee, an American Terran player and current member of Quantic Gaming. His recent history incudes, Illusion went 1-2 in the group stage of Red Bull Battlegrounds, finishing the tournament in 9th-12th position, after being brought in as a replacement to Polt. Illusion qualified for the 2012 MLG Summer Arena, in the first round Illusion lost 1-2 to Ragnarok. In the losers bracket Illusion went 2-0 against qxc before losing 0-2 to Ryung. Overall the American Terran player will show us some great games in MLG and will fight until his last drop of power fails him.

Kevin 'qxc' Riley is the last player in the group, high level StarCraft 2 and former Brood War player from the USA. Qxc has a tendency to do slightly unorthodox things in his games which generates some pretty awesome games. He's a player who is able to think on his feet more than others. He is also acknowledged for his constant aggression through harassment, pushing his opponents' multitask to the limits. He has a reputation of losing to Dark Templar builds in important matches with his loss against Tiger in his first broadcasted match in the GSTL and another loss against Choya in the July Code A qualifiers. Only time will tell what qxc will do in this MLG.

First player in the group is Yang 'Alicia' Joon Sik, a Protoss player currently on team SlayerS. Alicia is no stranger to the MLG tournament, last time in the 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Summer Arena he placed second after Taeja defeated him in the finals with the score of 2-4, and also getting second place in the North American Star League Season 3 losing to Stephano with the score of 0-4. Alicia has showed us that he is a player that has his chances to be placed in the top spots of this type of a tournament.

Lee-Seok 'aLive' Han is the second competitor in the group, a Terran player from South Korea, playing for the team Fnatic. One of his recent winnings is in IGN ProLeague Season 4 over Squirtle with the score of 3-0, fourth place in the Iron Squid tournament losing to NesTea with the score of 2-3. aLive is considered as the scariest player in practice matches. He’s also known for beating IdrA in a Best of 7 Showmatch in under 30 Minutes. His recent performances not only shows that he is a one scary player but even a potential winner.

Third person in the group is Dong Ju 'GanZi' Kim, a Korean professional StarCraft 2 Terran player from compLexity Gaming. One amazing thing about this player is that he never lost a BoX series against Zerg in his GSL career. Some of his recent achievements are: 5 - 6th in 2012 MLG Winter Championship and Ro4 in the 2012 MLG Spring Arena 1. Even though his results does not show a potential winner here he is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Ho Joon 'PuMa' Lee is the fourth competitor in the group, a StarCraft 2 player for Evil Geniuses and former BW player. In 2011 PuMa started his career with a lot of wins, most of the times the tournament where he was going will be the one that he will most likely win. His notable achievements in 2012 are second place in the IEM Season VI - World Championship losing to MC 3-2 in a close series, winning ROG Winter 2012 over Lucky with the score of 3-0. Is known for his particularly effective 1/1/1 builds against Protoss players, was NASL champion for the first two seasons of the tournament. PuMa is a player with great chances of getting further into the tournament and possibly having a shot at winning it.

The fifth player in the group is one of the nicest persons in e-Sports, Shawn 'Sheth' Simon is an American Zerg player playing for Team Liquid. One of his many recent achievements is third place in the One Nation of Gamers i2 Starcraft 2 Invitational over TLO with the score of 4-3 and doing an “All kill” of team Evil Geniuses in IPL Team Arena Challenge 2. I feel Sheth is without a doubt a player that will progress further into the tournament.

The last player in the group Sung Bin 'binski' Lee, an American Terran player who is currently a member of LighT eSports. He has competed in multiple MLG’s during the 2011 MLG season, notably Orlando where he was two rounds away from the championship bracket, ultimately losing 2-1 to HwangSin. He also made a few head turns at Providence where he beated Tyler 2-0, knocking him out of the tournament. He was then taken down in the following round by Oz. The underdog in this group is definitely binski, due to his results he will have a hard time getting out of the group.

The first competitor in this group is Hak Soo 'Oz' Kim, a Korean professional StarCraft 2 Protoss player who plays for Fnatic. Recent success is getting third place in the 2012 MLG Summer Arena, defeated by Alicia by the score of 3-4, and winning the 2012 MLG Spring Arena 2 Korea Qualifier with the score of 4-2 over Symbol. Oz is no stranger to MLG, his chances for placing high in tournament are quite big.

The second competitor in the group is the famous Ilyes 'Stephano' Satouri, a professional Zerg player from France, who is currently a member of Millenium. Will this be Stephano’s time to win an MLG Championship, after so many close calls? His playstyle is characterised by mass Speedling/Infestor play when he plays versus a Terran player, his signature build against Protoss players who open with a Forge Fast Expansion, which revolves around applying pressure with Roaches and Speedlings at the twelve-minute mark (on rare occasions even before that), is one of the most studied within the community. He holds the third-highest peak elo rating ever after MarineKing and Mvp. One of his recent achievements is getting first place in the North American Star League Season 3, where he defeated Alicia 4-0, and getting to the Ro4 in DreamHack Open Summer 2012. Stephano is expected to perform really well in this tournament, he has been practising out in Korea for a month prior to MLG so he's in great shape.

Kim 'viOlet' Dong Hwan is the third player in the group, currently teamless Korean Zerg. Earned the nickname Surgeon Zerg, or Zergeon, during the 2012 MLG Spring Arena 2 because he was sick and wore a medical mask. Recent achievement is getting to the semifinals at the IEM Season VII - Global Challenge Cologne, and third place in GLI, where he beat Golden with the score of 3-2. With the great success behind his back, viOLet will most likely advance further into the brackets.

Fourth competitor in the group is Seo-Yong 'Rain' Park, a Korean Terran player on the team Fnatic. He lives with his father in New York, and is the only finalist of any GSL open season to not have any previous Brood War progaming experience. Recent success in his career is back in 2011, getting to the semifinals in the Dreamhack Valencia Invitational, and winning some online cups like Go4SC2. Rain also played in MLG Providence, but was defeated in back-to-back series by Mvp and MarineKing. In order for him to advance further in the tournament he needs to beat players like Oz, Stephano and viOLet, which will give him a hard time achieving that.

Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen is the fifth player in the group, he is a Dutch professional StarCraft 2 Protoss player. He has been competing in eSports in the real-time strategy game WarCraft 3 (WC3) and WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne as an Orc player. Grubby has won more than 38 LAN tournaments, of which 6 are World Championships. One of his recent achievements in the StarCraft II scene is third place in SEE, which he won over SortOf with a score of 2-0, and first place in the StarsWar 7 Western Qualifier winning over the Ukrainian Zerg player DIMAGA with a 3-2 score. All of his past results show that Grubby is a player who will get forward in the brackets and only a few people can stop him from doing this.

The last player in the group is Andrew 'giX' Benson, a professional StarCraft 2 Zerg player, currently playing for Team Legion. One of his recent achievements is back in 2011 where he won WCG USA Qualifier #5 with the 3-2 score over HuK, and first place in the Vile Gaming Quickweb Weekly #2, winning over Destiny with the score of 3-1. It’s going to be a tough tournament for giX. Chances for giX to get further into the tournament are quite slim, due the caliber of the competitors in the group.

The first player in the group is non other than Kang 'First' Hyun Woo, a Korean professional StarCraft 2 Protoss player who plays for Incredible Miracle. First participated in the 2012 MLG Summer Arena in July, where he was able to do very well in this tournament. Within his bracket, he took down Snute, TOP, PuMa, GanZi, aLive, and LosirA to advance into the finals to face TaeJa. Unfortunately for First, he lost to TaeJa by a score of 0-2 and ended up taking third place. The Korean Protoss competitor had great success in the EWM Season 3 Week 7, where he won first place after defeating CoCa with a 2-0 score. This may be his potential MLG win after showing how good he is in the previous event.

Second competitor the group is known for his fast hands,Hwang Kang 'KangHo' Ho, a Zerg player for Incredible Miracle. Infamous for dancing with his Zerglings against Bomber and giving thumbs down to the whole Startale team during the GSTL February. Once stated during a GSL Group Selection that he spends a lot of money on his hair. One of his recent winnings is first place in EWM Season 2 Week 4, where he won over KingKong with a 2-0 score, and second place in the same tournament but Week 3, where he lost to CoCa 1-2. LosirA is definitely the player that has the potential to reach the top ranks in MLG as he did in MLG Columbus 2011.

Lee 'Daisy' Jong Hyuk is third player in the group, a Korean StarCraft 2 professional Protoss player who plays for ESC ICYBOX. In June Daisy was the first player to qualify for the TeamLiquid StarLeague 4, as he won the first foreign qualifier. One of his recent results is first place in the PS Elite Cup Q#4, where he won over Bly with the score of 3-0, he also has several winnings in the NA Zotac Cups. Daisy is a player with enough willpower to progress through the group play, and even placing high in the brackets.

The fourth player in group is Sascha 'GoOdy' Lupp, a professional StarCraft 2 player from Germany and teammate of Daisy. GoOdy is nicknamed "The Panzer General", his style relies heavily on Mech play in all 3 matchups, as a result his APM is relatively low for a progamer. GoOdy has revamped his style, and now incorporates bio play into his game. Cordially nicknamed the "Supply Block Terran" by MC during a game vs ReaL in the HomeStory Cup IV tournament. His results at the moment mainly consists of online cup winnings (not first place) like Antec Attack. A lot of progamers already know how to counter GoOdy’s play, unless he does something different he will have a hard time beating the Koreans in the group.

Gage 'Sasquatch' DuBose is the fifth competitor in the group, an American Zerg player currently playing for the Complexity Academy. Sasquatch's first major tournament appearance was in the MLG Spring Championships and WCS US Nationals, where he scored notable victories over several well known players, such as Machine, Yata, and Haypro. He has also qualified for MLG Summer Arena. Recent achievement is second place in the “Sponsor Me!” Playhem Tournament, where he lost to Scarlett with the score of 1-4. Sasquatch enters the group as the underdog, he needs to pull quite the play in the group to get any further.

The last player in the group is Patrick 'Caliber' Coury, an American Protoss player who is currently a member of LighT eSports. In 2011, he was able to attend a few MLGs. His best results were at Orlando where he finished in the top 44. On August 4th, 2012, Caliber participated in the IPL5 Amateur Satellite Qualifiers. Caliber received a BYE in round one and then went on to take down KiFirE and AlexCMoi in order to advance to the finals to face Rowrin. After defeating Rowrin by a score of 2-0, Caliber was able to qualify for the IGN ProLeague Season 5. The history of the player shows that he is the other underdog in the group who will have slim chances to proceed further in the tournament.

MLG Summer is going to be a blast and the action kicks off tomorrow night at 23:00 CET. You can find the entire tournament over at MLG TV.